Press Release Article

ONE WORLD TRADE CENTER STREET-LEVEL PLAZA TAKES SHAPE

The street-level plaza on the eastern side of One World Trade Center took shape this morning following an all-night concrete pour, providing access to the tower’s first entrance.

Construction workers spent 14 consecutive hours pouring 1,250 cubic yards of concrete on the eastern side of the tower, bringing it to street level - the equivalent of six miles of New York City sidewalk. The pour, which began in the rain, was the largest done to date for One World Trade Center. It formed the base of a large fountain on the plaza level, as well as concrete boxes where Swamp White Oak trees will be planted.

More than 125 trucks delivered the concrete to the site. The section of One World Trade Center plaza has already risen five stories underground to get to grade. The building’s core already rises more than 100 feet above ground.

The concrete pour forms what will be a landscaped plaza area around part of the tower’s perimeter. The eastern part of the plaza will provide street-level access to one of four tower entrances, with the eastern entrance scheduled to be used by The China Center, which signed a lease for space in the tower earlier this year.

Port Authority Chairman Anthony R. Coscia said, “We’ve made enormous progress in bringing One World Trade Center up to grade from 80 feet below ground. We're committed to completing this tower and the other public projects at the World Trade Center site on the current timetable.”Port Authority Executive Director Chris Ward said, “This is an important milestone but much work lies ahead. We will continue working aggressively every single day until all of the public projects are complete.”

Significant progress has been made in the past year to build One World Trade Center. The tower’s core rises over 180 feet high - 80 feet below ground and more than 105 feet above street level. More than 22,000 cubic yards of concrete - the equivalent of more than 100 miles of New York City sidewalks - has been poured to date. And 700 tons of steel have been installed for the tower’s substructure, the equivalent of the weight of two Statues of Liberty.

CONTACT: The Port Authority of New York and New JerseySteve Coleman, 212 435-7777The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey operates many of the busiest and most important transportation links in the region. They include John F. Kennedy International, Newark Liberty International, LaGuardia, Stewart International and Teterboro airports; AirTrain JFK and AirTrain Newark; the George Washington Bridge and Bus Station; the Lincoln and Holland tunnels; the three bridges between Staten Island and New Jersey; the PATH (Port Authority Trans-Hudson) rapid-transit system; Port Newark; the Elizabeth-Port Authority Marine Terminal; the Howland Hook Marine Terminal on Staten Island; the Port Authority Auto Marine Terminal; the Brooklyn Piers/Red Hook Container Terminal; the Greenville Yard-Port Authority Marine Terminal; and the Port Authority Bus Terminal in midtown Manhattan. The agency also owns the 16-acre World Trade Center site in Lower Manhattan and is a partner in the Access to the Region’s Core tunnel project.